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Jan 1, 1400
From A Narrative of the Captivity By Mary Rowlandson
In the opening part of her narrative Rowlandson describes the attack on Lancaster, during which twelve people were killed and twenty-four taken captive, and the assualt on her own house. During the raid, Mary and her "babe", were wounded. The first part of this selection recounts the move of Mary and her captors from Princeton to Braintree, Massachusetts, two days after the raid. -
Jan 1, 1400
From The History of the Dividing Line By William Bryd
The History of the Dividing Line is one histories Bryd wrote about the survey of the disputed boundary. The first history was never intented for publication and is referred to as The Secret History is a behind-the -scenes account of the expedition, and its publication would have been scandalous. In this offical history. Bryd begins his account with a lively description of England's colonization of America -
Jan 1, 1400
Native American
In the beginning of Native American literature texts were told orally, and they link the earth-surface people with the plants and animals, the rivers and rocks, and all things believed significant in the life of America’s first people. Telling a story and writing a story, even if they are the same story, remembered from generation to generation, are not the same way of preserving the story. The teller and the writer use different faculties of mind, and have different disciplines of language. -
Jan 1, 1400
From Of Plymouth Plantation By William Bradford
For William Bradford, the hardship of the voyage of America did not end with the landing at Plymouth. In December 1620, while the Mayflower was anchored in Provincetown Harbor, Bradford and other men took a small boat ashore to scout for a place to land and build shelter. When they returned, Bradford learned that his young wife had fallen or jumped from the ship. Perhaps DorothyBradford was in despair when land was finally sighted and she did not see the hoped-for-green hills of an earthly parad -
Jan 1, 1400
From La Relacion By Alvar Munez Cabeza de Vaca
Cabeza de Vaca lived with the native people of what is now Texas for six years. He and the other survivors then decided to continue their journey to Mexico City, using American Indians as guides. They met and joined a party of Spanish soldiers on a slaving, expedition, and in 1537 the men arrived in Mexico City. They had been traveling for more than eight years. -
Jan 1, 1400
From The Interesting Narrative ofrom the Life of Olaudah Equiano By Olaudah Equiano
In the eighteenth century, the practice od capturing men, women, and children in Africa and selling them as slaves in North America was legal and lucrative. Equiano's account provides a firsthand description of the Middle Passage. The Middle Passage was the slaves journey across the Atlantic Ocean. This journey, in which the captives were shackled together in crowded and unsanitary conditions, often took three months to complete. Many people died of dysentery, starvation, and suicide on the slav -
Period: Jan 1, 1400 to
American Literatue
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Jan 1, 1472
Puritanism(1472-1750)
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Enlightenment (1750-1800)
The Enlightenment, sometimes referred to as the Age of Reason, was a confluence of ideas and activities that took place throughout the eighteenth century in Western Europe, England, and the American colonies. Scientific rationalism, exemplified by the scientific method, was the hallmark of everything related to the Enlightenment. Following close on the heels of the Renaissance, Enlightenment thinkers believed that the advances of science and industry helped the progress of humankind. -
Gothic Fiction
A mode of narrative fiction dealing with supernatural or horrifying events and generally possessed of a claustrophobic air of oppression or evil. In Gothic romances and tales this theme is embodied typically in enclosed and haunted settings such as castles, crypts, convents, or gloomy mansions, in images of ruin and decay, and in episodes of imprisonment, cruelty, and persecution. -
Romanticism (1800-1840)
Romanticism is concerned with the individual more than with society. The individual consciousness and especially the individual imagination are especially fascinating for the Romantics. On the formal level, Romanticism witnessed a steady loosening of the rules or artistic expression that was pervasive during earlier times. The Neoclassical Period of the eighteenth century included very strict expectations regarding the structure and content of poetry. -
Transcendentalism(1840-1855)
The adherents to Transcendentalism believed that knowledge could be arrived at not just through the senses, but though intuition and contemplation of the internal spirit. Transcendentalism represented a new way of understanding truth and knowledge. The roots of the philosophy go back to Germany, specifically the writings and theories of Immanuel Kant. -
Realism(1865-1915)
Realism is exactly what it sounds like. It is attention to detail, and an effort to replicate the true nature of reality in that novelists had never attempted. There is belief that novel’s function is simply to report what happens, without comment or judgment. Seemingly inconsequential elements gain the attention of the novel functioning in the realist mode. -
Naturalism(1880-1940)
The dominant theme of Naturalist literature is that persons are fated to whatever station in life their heredity, environment, and social conditions prepare them for. The power of primitive emotions to negate human reason was also a recurring element. Naturalism sought to go further and be more explanatory than Realism by identifying causes for a person’s actions or beliefs. -
Regionalism(1880-1910)
Regionalism in literature embraces not the universal but the particular, forcing on what specifically characterizes a geographical area and its people. Regional writers strive to capture the speech, dress, common beliefs, and social interactions of a given locale. Regionalists writers attempt to re-create in careful detail both relevant physical features of landscapes and towns and the often colorful characters who inhabit them. -
Imagism(1912-1927)
Imagism was a movement in early 20th-century Anglo-American poetry that favored precision of imagery and clear, sharp language; it was described as the most influential movement in English poetry since the activity of the Pre-Raphaelites. -
Modernism(1915-1946)
Experimentation and individualism became virtues, where in the past they were often heartily discouraged. Modernism was set in motion, in one sense, through a series of cultural shocks. The Modernist Period in English literature was first and foremost a visceral reaction against the Victorian culture and aesthetic, which had prevailed for most of the nineteenth century. Indeed, a break with traditions is one of the fundamental constants of the Modernist stance. -
Herlem Renaissance(1920s)
The Harlem Renaissance is unusual among literary and artistic movements for its close relationship with to civil rights and reform organizations. The renaissance had many sources in black culture, primarily of the United States and the Caribbean, and manifested itself well beyond Harlem. As its symbolic capital, Harlem was a catalyst for artistic experimentation and a highly popular nightlife destination. -
Contemporary(1946-present)
